When Lord Rama finally returned, their heart’s innermost longing was finally fulfilled. They spontaneously celebrated this joyful reunion of divine love by illuminating their houses. Apart from being a historical reality, this event has immense relevance. Ayodhya is like our heart, and Lord Rama is the Lord of our hearts, the supreme object of love and devotion for all of us. Unfortunately, we, too, have exiled the Lord from our hearts due to unfortunate misconceptions. Just as Ayodhya became a ghost town when Lord Rama departed, our soul has become infested with negative – and often self-destructive – feelings like anxiety, boredom, loneliness, depression, stress, prejudice, envy, anger, and hatred. And, just like the citizens of Ayodhya, our lives have become filled with emptiness and lamentation. There is a critical difference between the citizens of Ayodhya and us. They knew that their grief was due to bereavement from the Lord. We, however, are often slow to recognize the root cause of our malaise. We try to hide and forget the existential emptiness of our life by accelerating its pace in pursuit of mundane goals – wealth, enjoyment, entertainment, fame, power, and position. But these illusory substitutes for the love of God offer only flickering titillation, not lasting fulfillment.

Consequently, despite the frantic pace and the jazzy gadgets that are the pride of our lives, we remain primarily unfulfilled and disappointed. Historically, the import of Deepavali is not the lighting of lamps but the return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya. So our celebration of Deepavali will remain incomplete if we restrict ourselves to lighting lamps. Then how can we welcome the Lord back into our hearts and experience the essence of Deepavali? Lord Rama answers in the Ramayana through His instructions, informing us of our identity and purpose. We are all eternal spiritual beings belonging to the kingdom of God, where we eternally enthrone the Lord as the king of our hearts and rejoice in selfless loving exchanges with Him. When we exile the Lord from our hearts, we exile ourselves from that world of endless love and come to this mortal world, where we misidentify ourselves with temporary material bodies. Covered by spiritual amnesia, we play illusory roles and pursue illusory goals but get only disappointment and distress. Though we exile and forget the Lord, He never forgets us and never actually leaves our hearts. He becomes unmanifested to our vision and continues to accompany and guide us throughout all our adventures and misadventures, eagerly waiting and inviting us back to His loving shelter. By cultivating knowledge from the sacred scriptures about the Lord and His love for us and reviving our dormant love for Him by chanting His holy names, we can invite Him back to our hearts. Therefore while lighting the earthen lamps this Deepavali, let us also burn our hearts with divine wisdom and love.